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We bank with Unicaja who charge ridiculous amounts to transfer anything over 25,000 euros out of or into the account. Are there any other banks around that compare better? We plan to sell up and go back to the UK and the prospect of moving the money is a bit daunting. We use HIFX for our usual money transfers which are always below the Unicaja charge threshold.
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The branch manager of any bank can affect what you are charged. So have a chat with him / her.
But if you tell them you want the cheapest way to move money out of the account, as you will be closing it, don't expect them to treat you as they would treat a potentially good customer
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Solbank recently told me they wouldn't charge for transfers up to 50K, even to an overseas account. Not sure I believe them , but may be putting it to the test soon. Not that it's much help in your case, but you can move money from one Spanish bank to another without the sending bank charging, by getting the receiving bank to effect the transfer. I also recently asked Lloyds (Spain) if they could take the money from my Solbank account (yes, no charge by either bank) and then transfer it to my Lloyds Gibraltar account, since they offer free transfers within the Lloyds group. They weren't impressed with my plan, saying there was nothing in it for them!
Some time ago, someone from Leeds Building Society in Gibraltar posted on EOS saying that he could advise anyone interested on some method to transfer funds from a Spanish bank to his establishment without incurring any charges. Unfortunately I can't find it now.
_______________________
"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please"
Mark Twain
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Solbank (now Sabadell) charged me £800 to transfer £160,000 from a sterling investment account, which had matured, to a sterling account in another bank. (0.5% on the whole amount) They said whatever bank I transferred to the charge would be made.
I tried negotiating with them prior to making the transfer, and I complained like hell after, but they still made the charge.
Prior to that, Solbank were so very helpful and obliging !
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As I have mentioned before (because it might be useful information for others), if you had asked the receiving bank to make the transfer, Solbank (or Sabadell if you're splitting hairs) would not have charged you.
But I don't expect you to believe me of course.
It works both ways of course, if you want to transfer money from another bank to Solbank, if you ask Solbank to make the transfer rather than the sending bank, the sending bank won't charge you.
https://www.bancsabadell.com/cs/Satellite/SabAtl/Cash-Transfer-from-other-Spanish-banks/1191359576382/en/
This message was last edited by Roberto on 16/02/2013.
_______________________
"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please"
Mark Twain
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But I don't expect you to believe me of course.
Why not ? Although the web page you referred to to is The free way to transfer your money between Spanish banks!
I transferred to a Bank in Gibraltar and it was Sterling (may have made a difference)
However, I did ask Solbank if there was any way I could avoid charges, it was about 2 years ago, (so it may have changed) and they were adamant, I had to pay no matter what I did. That was confirmed by an exchange of correspondence with their senior staff, not just the branch.
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You didn't make it clear that you were making an international transfer. And I think even you can believe that no bank is going to voluntarily tell you how to avoid their charges. That's what public forums are for.
_______________________
"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please"
Mark Twain
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You didn't make it clear that you were making an international transfer
I did say, “They said whatever bank I transferred to the charge would be made.”
As it happens, it did include a bank in Spain, but , as I said, things may have changed since then, or as the (your) webpage shows the no charge is ‘between Spanish banks’ (thus maybe only Euro exchanges) so it may not refer to the kind of transfer I made. But either way it's water under the bridge now.
I have successfully negotiated with banks over many years in UK, Spain, Asia and USA. The first time I got caught out by the 'excessive' transfer charge was with BBVA, they subsequently refunded 50%
Back to this post.
David did imply in his question that he was going to make a transfer to UK and he was asking for advice about that, not transfers within Spain.
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Yes, exactly, ** EDITED - Inciting - Against forum rules **
David: I mentioned the Lloyds route because if it's not time sensitive, I'm quite sure that if you are prepared to keep you funds deposited in Lloyds (Spain) for, say 6 months or a year, they would then not object to you moving them on to Lloyds in Gib or the UK, for example. This way you could avoid any charges at all.
Alternatively, it may be worth getting in touch with Simon Murphy (if he's still there), the operations manager for the Leeds Building Society branch Gibraltar, who posted the following on another forum just over a year ago:
"There is also some advice available from us for those who wish to get their Euros out of Spanish banks without having to pay large Tele Transfer fee's which can be 0.4% of the amount being transferred;on €200K this can be up to €800 for the bank to press a few buttons, it is as close to bank robbery in reverse as you could care to see. "
This message was last edited by eos_moderators on 16/02/2013.
_______________________
"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please"
Mark Twain
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I am with Lloyd's Bank International in Spain, formerly Halifax, when i paid in my full house sale money in Spain i was charged 5€, yes only 5€ to pay the cheque in, then i went to my local Halifax in the UK (Now Lloyd's) asked how much to transfer this same amount back to them in the UK, they said £25.00....i am used to banks saying one thing and getting another cost later on, so i don't believe them 100% sure on that.
When i transfer from the UK Halifax Lloyd's to the same in Spain via the Internet, or in the UK branch, it costs nothing, this i do know for sure, i think under all the tight budgets going on now they might start to make the rules up as they go along.
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